Sunday, December 9, 2012

PDP is the biggest enemy of Nigerian youths

Sani Ndanusa, Bolaji Abdullahi. Who is likely to be the worst sports minister Nigeria can ever have?

It is evident that Nigeria
is blessed with abundant latent talents in various sports. The critical
challenge has always been how to identify, groom and expose the talented to
attain their full potential in the global setting where the real big cash is.

These requires good
technocrats in coaching, sports science, management, funding, as well as, a
deep commitment to effectively transform the country’s huge potentials into
sports development.

Recently, Mallam Bolaji
Abdullahi stated that majority of staffers in his ministry are not fit to be
there. So, by eduction, the future remains bleak if sports development will be
in the hands of that Ministry and its current staffers.

Again, he massively goofed
when he threw the National Sports festival open. Then, went on to create an
U-17 national championship. It is either the minister is running his own shows
or his advisers are suffering from cerebral malaria. We shall come back to
that. Let’s review the PDP and sports since 1999.

Sports ministers as problems: Since 1999 when Nigeria’s political firmament took
the democratic toga, getting a very good, clued-up sports minister has been a
major problem. From the tenure of former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, through
Umar Musa Yar’Adua and now Goodluck Jonathan who all came to power on the
platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), sports has been on the back
seat in the polity, in spite of the good image sports has continued to give the
country, especially outside Nigeria. Two clear-cut exceptions include late Engineer
Ishaya Mark-Aku and probably, controversial and combative Abdulrahman Gimba.

Government and those who
fashion our sports remains unscientific, local and not producing results. They
run sports, a science, like voodoo economics.

President Jonathan...where is the Fresh Air you promised our sports?

Unfulfilled promises: According to the former senior special assistant
to the President on Research and Documentation, Oronto Douglas, (now Minister
of Power) in a chat with sporting media before the presidential election, “President
Goodluck Jonathan has plans to revolutionise sports in Nigeria if elected”. Can
we ask again, where is the promised revolution? Rather, his administration has critically injured the fragile
health of sports. With Abdullahi’s latest goof, it is buried. The Jonathan campaign
was hooked on “fresh air” but the air we have, especially in sports, is putrid.

Said Oronto then, “If you
look at his track records as deputy governor, governor and vice president, it
has been a track record of support for the sporting industry. Remember that
Bayelsa had two teams in the Nigeria Premier League when he was the governor of
the state. This did not just happen. It was a deliberate policy pursued by his
administration to develop sports and provide legitimate government when the
president was there at the helm of policy making.

“To have a small state like
Bayelsa having two teams in the Premiership is no mean feat. Also, it is on
record that any Bayelsan that is interested in sports was always supported
during his term in the state; whether it is Daniel Igali, Taribo West or Samson
Siasia, his government supported. I can go on and on to give you a catalogue of
things that he achieved in sports when he was governor of the state,” he said.

Sports budget: The Federal Government’s annual budget for the sports sector is
grossly inadequate for any meaningful development to take place. The 2011
budget of sports is N11.8billion with the recurrent expenditure having the lion
share of about N10.6billion of the total budget, leaving a paltry N1.1billion
for capital projects.

Out of the N11.8billion
budget, the illegal Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) had N2.9billion to
prosecute all its 2011 programmes which they did and for the first time in our
national history never qualified for a single international event the following
year.

Of that amount, N.6billion
went to the National Institute for Sports (NIS) for implementation of its
policies and programmes, while the remaining N7.2billion is for recurrent and
capital expenditures of the National Sports Commission. This is about the trend
in the 2012 budget. Nothing will change in the 2013 budget.

From 1999 till date, people
who know nothing about sports miraculously find their away to the highest level
of sports administration, as minister and chairman, National Sports Commission
(NSC) and even headships of the various sports federations.

Instead of hitting the
ground running and initiating programmes that will have direct bearing on
sports, they usually spend time learning the process to get themselves
familiarised with various sports in the country, and by the time they begin to
understand the policy and terrain of Nigeria’s sports, they are redeployed to
other ministries or removed completely from the cabinet.

For the past 13 years of the
PDP-led government, no minister of Sports and chairman, National Sports
Commission (NSC) has spent two years in office! Between 1999 and 2012, Nigeria
has produced 12 ministers of sports. Bolaji Abdullahi is the third helmsman at the ministry in the space
of one year!

Late Ishaya Aku...best from the PDP Sports ministers

From the beginning... Mr.
Damishi Sango, who was named Sports Minister in June 1999 when former President
Olusegun Obasanjo came into office, famously confessed to lacking the expertise
to run the ministry. Gracefully, however, Sango was dropped about six months
later and the late Ishaya Mark Aku, a Water Engineer, assumed the mantle.

Although,
Aku spent a little over a year during his tenure as minister, he was regarded
by many as a radical who sought to sanitise sports in Nigeria and had genuine
interest to correct the ills that bedeviled her growth and development.

His
revolutionary moves were evident as he made it clear he was determined to
restructure the ministry. However, he died in a plane crash on 4th
May, 2002 while he was on his way to be guest of honour at a pre-World Cup
friendly match between Nigeria and Kenya in Kano.

The
mantle fell on the late Chief Stephen Akiga who was former minister in the
Industry and Police Affairs ministries. He reigned from May 2002 to May 2003.

Then,
came the odourless and colourless Colonel Musa Mohammed (rtd) who held the
reins from July 2003 to July 2005, making him one of the longest serving sports
ministers since 1999. He oversaw Nigeria's leadership of the continent at the
2003 All Africa Games hosted by Abuja.

Alhaji
Samaila Sambawa became the next minister and took charge till July 2006 when another
colourless Engineer Bala Kaoje took over. Exactly one year later, Mr.
Abdulrahman Gimba, a lawyer, took over and lasted till October 2008 when a
cabinet reshuffle eased him out of office.

Sports
watchers heaved a sigh of relief when Sani Ndanusa, another Water Engineer was
appointed in December 2008. Not a few had believed that Ndanusa's familiarity
with the sports terrain where he was President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation
(NTF) since 2001 would serve him well.

Ironically,
however, his tenure not only witnessed a steady downturn in Nigerian tennis,
but it was also tainted by quality controversy, with regard to the
cost-inflated hosting of the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup and reports of over-age
saga that hovered over the squad.

Not
even Nigeria's silver-winning feat at the competition could rescue the country
from the age controversy. Ndanusa left office in March 2010 when then Acting
President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved his cabinet and was succeeded by Isa
Ibrahim Bio, a pharmacist, who was before then minister of transport.

Although,
Bio demonstrated passion on the job, the murky waters of sports politics proved
his albatross until he left the office voluntarily in December 2010 to contest
governorship election in Kwara State.

Going
by his credentials, his successor, Taoheed Adedoja, a professor of physical
education with specialisation in Sports Administration would have been looked
upon as a suitable candidate to lead sports to the promised land. But he failed
woefully to make a mark.

As
he eased off with his high quality of failure came former Transport minister,
Yusuf Suleiman. One historical mark he did was setting up the Dominic Oneya
committee to resolve the issues in Nigerian football. He received the report on
the eve of leaving to contest the gubernatorial election in Sokoto state. He
was replaced by Bolaji Abdullahi. Abdullahi dumped the Oneya report and we are
back in the trenches. He led Nigeria to the London 2012 Olympics and returned
empty handed with no medal.

His
administration organised a controversial Presidential sports retreat. He wants
N7b to produce magical athletes that will win five gold medals in Rio! The sustenance
of the urchin-type of controversies in the football community remains a major
achievement of his administration with a most corrupt League Board with a
minister-initiated audit report that nailed the Board. The Board is in place
and may remain for only how long.

He
has also led the nation to continue to swaddle in the murky waters of football
wars and battles. Rather than be thinking of what to do with the issues of
development of the sector, we had another Sports Summit in Delta state where
talks as cheap as they come was the cynosure. As it is so far, it is obvious
that the minister shall run the mill like his predecessors. All hail the cyclic
track of poverty of ideas in Nigeria’s sports administratoon courtesy the PDP.

1 comment:

Jide, great piece. But you can't crucify Bolaji so soon. You may not have noticed the radical changes he has brought to sports but I am privy to the fact that you will hail him as the God-sent sports messiah if he remains there for just three months. You don't expect him to hit the ground running in an atmosphere of rancour and acrimony that he inherited. If for almost four decades the Sports Festival had not produced an Olympic gold medal why not try something radical like Bolaji has done! Who says a local athlete can't beat Blessing Okagbare in 100m. I can assure you that competition in an all comers NSF will be tougher. I know Bolaji too well and I can assure you that he is focussed and has no hidden agenda like the former sports ministers. He has the Mark Aku radical approach to sports development but the methodologies may be different. Just tarry a while before going for the hangman's noose.